


reach these fever dreams

by TheLadyTeddy



Series: no laughter after heaven closes [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, Gen, TW: Violence, tw: abuse, tw: sakura losing it, underage drink sorta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 12:52:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15461784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyTeddy/pseuds/TheLadyTeddy
Summary: Small spin off bits of my work 'No Laughter After Heaven Closes'.





	reach these fever dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura stands up to her Mother, things go a little sideways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been gone for 1000 years, sorry I'm useless.
> 
> Anyway here's Wonderwall.

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about having her team (and Rin) over was how much her Mother cleaned the house spotless. How she chastised Sakura from her comfy clothes and ponytailed locks, how she fussed over which teacups and the right chopsticks. Her mother was a reserve chunin, taking small courier missions every few months and minded the store, while her father was a chunin with mid-level Katon jutsu who usually took bodyguard missions and handled the financial books for the store. The life of a ninja for them was glorified bodyguards and messengers, they displayed no great outward talent and would continue as career chunin for a few more years. Her mother had exactly one kill in the field from her genin years and received her promotion as a result of age and mission numbers rather than through the Chunin Exams or a field promotion, while her father had several kills to his name though most were through bandits and attackers during his bodyguard missions and minor skirmishes. Both of her parents were simply, on average, and if there was one thing Sakura hated it was their lack of drive.

Sakura hummed over her clothes, trying to figure something to put on. Naruto was so surprised yesterday to be invited to dinner, complete with a cardstock invitation and an ask for them to not bring anything to dinner. Sasuke even popped a smile, though he and his brother often got such invitations through the years, everyone wanting to curry favor with the last two Uchiha. But Naruto, the bright blonde with a wild mischievous mind and a deep love for anyone who even showed him the slightest bit of gentleness had held the invitation like it was a precious slab of gold or a beautiful bowl of ramen. He stared at her and asked if it was real, and then quietly asked what he was allowed to wear. Sakura could feel her heart pinging and could see the dark flicker in Sasuke’s eyes as Naruto seemed shocked that anyone would allow him into their home.

It made Sakura want to punt someone through a wall.

Which was why she had been watching her Mom like a hawk whenever Naruto was brought up, carefully, gauging her reaction to her teammate, figuring what she’d say or do should he come around. Trying her best to protect, for once, her teammate than her blood. It’s partially why she wanted to show up to their dinner a little dressed down, to get the room more comfortable like their team dinners and campouts. Afterall Team 7 was welcome in the Uzumaki apartment all hours of the day, and Naruto was always ecstatic to have them over, to boil a pot of noodles for them or whip up tea. Simply happy to have someone to share his home with, Karin clucked over his excitement, of his bonds, as if didn’t already have a pseudo-sibling in the redhead, and a half-camped out Senju in his living room. As if everything was going to slip away from him if he closed his eyes too tightly. He only held on tighter after their C turned A-rank mission to the Suna border when he thought they’d died.

Sakura slipped on a zip-up red top, loose sleeved and a pair of white cargo shorts and called it a day as the doorbell rang.

“I got it kaa-san!” she pounded down the stairs of their home, nestled safely between the civilian section and just a few streets over from the Nara compound it was a comfortable home with a yard and within walking distance from their storefront, maintained, with a lovely garden and decorated with bright colors and carefully picked fabrics and furniture. Her mother had an eye for aesthetics, no one could deny that of Mebuki Haruno.

“Greet them properly!” her mother called from the kitchen, putting the last touches on appetizers and boiling tea for their guests, with their nice-but-not-fancy china.  
Sakura opened the door to find Sasuke, holding a lovely decorated bowl and looking decidedly uncomfortable in his light grey short sleeved jacket and black pants. Sakura couldn’t help but laugh as he tugged at the opening and revealed a mesh top underneath.

“This bowl is from your mother, a gift from my brother for inviting me into your home,” his tone was flat, and his words practiced and formal. Sakura raised an eyebrow and Sasuke couldn’t help but snicker as he held the bowl out, it was pretty, white porcelain with little blue and red flowers decorating the edge, it would be a lovely centerpiece and her mother would be touched.

“Thank you Sasuke-kun, come inside...” she moved to the side and he entered, eyes drifting over the foray and the photos, slipping off his shinobi sandals and tucking them neatly in a corner. “My Mom is in the kitchen, she might bombard you since you’re here first.”

“Hn,” Sasuke followed her into the living room while her mother breezed out and Sasuke turned and bowed lowly to her, not as low as he would a Clan Head, Jounin or any superior officer, but just low enough to give respect. “Haruno-san than you for inviting me into your home, I bring a gift for your generosity.”

‘ _Practiced, so well practiced._ ’ Sakura laughed at how Sasuke straightened, holding the bowl out and her mother cooed and delighted over it, smiling and thanking him for his gift, offering him tea and little snacks. He took them with grace along with an offered seat on the couch. Sakura joined him as they waited for their other teammates, Sasuke occasionally tugging at the neck of his jacket and drinking slowly from his cup.

“Any idea when the rest are getting here?”

“No idea, Kakashi-sensei and Rin-san ought to show up quickly, unless they get called away on an emergency and Naruto lives all the way across town.” From their vantage point, Sakura could see the tense line in her mother’s shoulder’s at their fellow teammate's mention and Sasuke leaned back.

“He’ll be here, I don’t think he would miss it,” Sasuke took another sip, “after all, it’s the first time he’s been welcomed anywhere.” his voice raised a little and her Mother seemed to be listening carefully, “You say how confused he was by the invitation, he’s probably panicking over what to do, or what to wear.”

“Karin will wrestle him into something respectable... I hope, the girl is hopeless when it comes to her other clothes. So much purple, and no skin showing, honestly I think even Hinata shows more skin than Karin does.”

Sasuke looked ready to speak when the doorbell rang and Sakura rushed to it to find a sheepish Kakashi but no Rin. He was dressed as he normally would as a Jounin, which made sense, as an active forces shinobi of his caliber he could be called away in the middle of a bowl of rice and have to answer the call of their Hokage. Her parents, though low-level and rather local chunin, would be familiar with this practice. But Sakura noticed that his gloves were missing and he was holding a bouquet of flowers and a rather nice bottle of sake.

“Rin is helping deliver a set of triplets, so it’s just old me here Sakura-chan, Rin sent the flowers as an apology.” Kakashi stepped in, his sandals going off as well and entered their home, while her mother stared at him in awe, the jounin did cut a striking figure when he stood straight. “Ah, Haruno-san, hello. We’ve met before.”

“Hatake-san, it is good to see you, I thought you were bringing another person?” her mother went forward to receive the gifts and smiled over the fresh cut flowers that Sakura would bet her life on were from the Yamanaka flower shop.

“Rin works for the hospital on call, she is a very talented and in demand medic, she is busy helping deliver a set of triplets, and is very sorry to have missed the gathering, I brought two gifts instead of one.” Kakashi smiled through his mask, and even with three-quarters of his face shrouded he was still somehow so very charming and handsome. Sakura watched as her mother easily forgave the jounin and assured him it was quite alright before he was bustled onto a chair next to Sasuke who was nibbling on some food, Sakura noticed that his jacket zipped had ‘fallen’ little ways. With a chuckle, she grabbed the metal clip and zipped it up tight to his throat while Sasuke made an annoyed groan.

“There you go Sasuke-kun,” she cooed at the now fuming genin, “all nice and zipped, you must get that fixed.” he was glaring so hard she was sure it was going to turn into the Sharingan.

They all sat a little longer, discussing training and while drinking tea and nibbling, it was growing later and all three exchanged glances about Naruto’s tardiness, right as Kakashi was about to send a clone to grab him the doorbell rang. Sakura saw how her mother tensed and there was a ripple through the apartment of some strange emotional wave, she plowed on and opened the door to her home, Naruto was there, face a little flushed, a dark orange kimono shirt hanging around his frame the trimming a bright white, black capri pants and a haori of dark blue with little white swirls on it, his hair was trimmed neatly and pulled back into a tight ponytail, and there was a bonsai tree nestled between his sweating palms. He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, “Ah, Sakura-chan, hello,” his smile was weak and tense, and Sakura looked down the street and found several neighbors staring at their household, something indescribable in their eyes.

“Naruto, come inside,” Sakura stepped aside for the boy to come through, he looked around the small entryway, toeing off his sandals, hands still holding tight to the bonsai tree. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows at it, she knew the Yamanaka’s didn’t grow bonsai, and neither did any of the other horticulture shops in town, at least not the ones anyone like Naruto could afford comfortably. His clothes were well-kept, but even still she could tell that the kimono shirt and haori were for someone a little taller, a little wider, but they fit well when belted. He looked almost respectable.

They came deeper into the home, Naruto stopping to look at pictures and paintings, a small smile over his face at the decorations and Sakura remembers how void that was in the Uzumaki apartment, rather it was the home of a young ninja, with seals and throwing stars scattered, clothes and little wooden figurines. There was nothing to build around, few family photos besides the Team photos of 7 and 3 hanging and one of Naruto and the Sandaime. Sakura felt tense as they came in and there was her mother, cutting a striking figure with her dirty brown hair and nice red and white dress, a little apron tied around her waist, towering over the genin. Naruto bowed low, lower than Sasuke did, Sakura was a little surprised at that, Naruto never showed any level of respect to anyone (because they would give none to him), but here he was bowing, attempting to look nice, bringing a gift.

“Haruno-sama,” so very strange, “thank you for welcoming me into your home. I brought you a bonsai, Sakura says you’re fond of plants, I ahh...” Naruto straightened holding out the tiny tree with unsteady hands. “Thank you, for dinner and everything, and I--I...” his cheeks were growing redder and Sakura could see the panic in his eyes, that he was messing up. Sakura could only watch as he grew quiet, shuffling his feet, and still holding out the plant.

Her mother was silent as Naruto nervously shifted from foot to foot, as the minutes since his stuttered sentence dragged on further and further that both Kakashi and Sasuke sat on the edges of their seats. She could see a plethora of emotions dash across her mother’s face-- anger, sadness, fear, guilt, rageragerage, hatred. Her mouth opens and Sakura sees something as Naruto looks up at her through the fringe of blonde hair, blue eyes waiting for some sort of ax to fall and for a moment Sakura thinks this will be okay. Her mother will let Naruto stay, will embrace her teammates, she would understand, she would grow to love him too like the rest of Team 7 has. She would see how kind he can be, how caring, how deeply loyal and she would--

Mebuki frowns, and that second is gone, like the whisper of a dream, and there is only hardness in her mouth and lining her form. “Out.” the word is clipped, final and clinks through the air like a thrown kunai

Naruto flinched as if the word was a blade, flinching back from the harshness, his eyes dulling growing flat, and far away. Sakura held her breathe. It would only take so long before Naruto would revert before he would go the offensive and start to fight back in the face of someone who hated him. There was only so much he could take. Her teammate lifted his eyes to her mother’s and they made full eye contact for a moment before Naruto walked over to a small side table, quiet steps, measured ones, as if he was trying to tiptoe around something no one else could see, a tripwire or trap like the ones he deviously laid. His usually steady hands were shaking, Sakura could see that he was gulping down air as the oppressive atmosphere grew darker and darker. Even she shifted around uncomfortably under the weight of the air in their home.

Though there was a demon trapped within her teammate’s gut, that negative energy was coming from her Mother. In the sharpness of her grey-green gaze as she watched Naruto, and he wilted, and laid the bonsai tree on the side-table, carefully, delicately, and it was strange to see the bombastic blonde become anything other than a vibrant ray of sunshine. Then he turned, sharply on his heel and walked from the room before stopping at the doorway, his shoulder shaking, his voice thick, “Tadashi says to water the plant minimally, and to be careful about switching it to another box and that it likes heavy sunlight. Th-thank you for the in-invitation. I better leave.” Then within a beat, Naruto is down the hallway and her mother is stalking after him the little plant in hand, with Kakashi following and Sasuke right after, Sakura shell-shocked in the corner.

“Get out demon!” her mother’s screech is undeniable. “Out of my house!” and Sakura feels a little corner of her heart break and her lungs concaved as they all shared the same shell-shocked fear in their eyes.

They all run to the door, and there is Naruto at the fence, watching as her Mother goes out and stalks out and stares Naruto in the face as she lets the bonsai plant drop onto the ground, the clay pot cracking, dirt spilling before turning on her heel to breeze past a stunned Kakashi, an enraged Sasuke, and a deeply embarrassed Sakura.

He stood there, staring at the bonsai tree, then back up at Mebuki Haruno who stood at the entrance of the garden, arms crossed and staring him down. Before he reached down to grab the little tree and Sakura could see it in his eyes that he wanted to throw it at her, to fling it at her mother’s face, to scream, to rageragerage. But there were her neighbors, whispering, pointing, laughing at him and Naruto stood in the street, in his hand-me-down formal attire, with a bonsai tree and whiskers on his cheeks, the Uzumaki swirl mocking as the oppressive atmosphere turned into a hurricane around them.

Sakura wondered if this was what Naruto felt on a daily basis if this was his normal if every day this mixture of embarrassment, guilt, fear, hatred, and rageragerage filled him and dragged him down. Yet he smiled and laughed, he supported them, he tried to make friends tirelessly and was unwavering in his support. Sakura wondered how he hadn’t been drained, how he hadn’t let the demon turn loose, how he hadn’t lost his mind. Then suddenly, the air cleared for just a moment. The negative force, it was gone as Naruto looked up from the tree and smiled, bright and loud, tears on his face and he took the little tree and cradled it to his chest, looking for all the world like he was trying to protect the tiny plant and just laughed, bright, cheery, loud and they all started at the sound as it echoed, at how his voice cracked and popped, how it rang and dipped and jumped, how his face was red and there were tears and his entire body was vibrating and there was not a lick of the fox there. Not a second of his demon infestation showing for even a flicker or a thought. Sakura watched as he looked at the little bonsai tree, and then turned on his heel and began to walk down the street, his voice turning from laughter to ring out in a cheery tune, bright and excited. It was raucous and so very filthy that even Kakashi looked surprised.

  
  “ _Drinkin’ the sake! Drinkin’ the sake!_  
_Gonna drink_ til _I’m sick_  
_Gonna drink_ til _I die_  
_Dare someone to mock me a_ lil _’_  
_I’ll beat ‘em down_  
_Drinkin’ the sake! Drinkin’ the sake!_  
_Slide me a few more_  
_Slide me a girl and a good coin_  
_Dare someone to mock me a_ lil _’_  
_I’ll beat ‘em down_ ”

  
His voice ran, high, it ran clear and the song became dimmer as he turned the corner and then Sasuke was down the walkway and out on the street. Without so much as a backward glance, unzipping his jacket and shoving his hands into his pockets, slipping into a practice slouch and following his teammate. Her mother was shocked when just at that moment Kakashi turned, his single other eye narrowed and darkened.

“Should you pull another stunt like this again Haruno, I will be speaking to the Sandaime,” Kakashi leaned forward just a little, “if you have any thoughts in your mind about what he is, then maybe you should learn to treat him kindly before badly. Don’t invite me, or Rin Nohara back.” then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves and Sakura was on the porch, staring at her mother who turned on her heel and Sakura followed, slamming the door shut behind her as her mother returned to the kitchen and began to pack up the food, putting rice into bowls and pork into containers.

“He isn’t the Kyuubi!” Sakura finally managed to choke out, between the poison coating her throat.

Her mother whirled and stalked over to her, but Sakura held her ground, fisting her hands up, squaring her shoulders. The elder woman sneered, “You don’t know what he is, he is a monster, he destroyed the village.”

“The demon destroyed the village! Naruto is simply his scroll, the container. He did nothing wrong!”

“He is the walking picture of wrong, strutting around the village as if he belongs.” her mother was breathing heavily, “destroy the scroll, you destroy the contents. It should have been done years ago, give the boy a mercy kill, let his ancestors welcome him home, let the Kyuubi die with him. A sacrifice.”

Sakura felt her skin prickle and her lips wrinkled back, “I know that on our mission, that when he thought Sasuke and I died, that he was going to avenge our deaths. He was willing to face an A-Rank criminal and fight him to the death for us, to avenge me. I know that Naruto would die for me, for Sasuke, for Karin, for Tadashi, for anyone in this fucking village that ever smiled at him. He’d die, happily--”

“Then he should do as all ninja do when they realize their fates,” Mebuki spat out, “they fall upon their kunai for the good of the village. It’s what he ought to do.”  
Sakura recoiled back, tears filling her eyes at the thought, the thought of Karin finding Naruto in such a way. The thought of Iruka’s face should Naruto ever die. The agony in Sasuke’s eyes. The way Tadashi would cry. How Sakura could feel her entire chest concaving in on itself, the surge of tears to her eyes as she began to sob, “It’s all of you who are the real monster’s, he’s just a boy.”

“No, he’s just a monster.” Mebuki’s hand darted forward to grab her chin, nails digging into her cheeks, painful and rough “I thought I could see it, I thought maybe I could see the boy, but it’s there on his face. Plain as day, he is marked by that monster and he will become it. He will fulfill the path the Kyuubi did and destroy everything he loves, and everything Konoha is.” she backed Sakura up, eyes narrowing and darkening. “He will kill you Sakura.”

“No, he’d kill for me.” Sakura grabbed her mother’s hand and pushes down on her pressure points, forcing her mother to release her grip with a yelp. “Just as I’d kill for him.” Sakura turned to see Sasuke’s bowl already put up with the good tableware, Rin-san’s flowers in a vase, Kakashi’s sake placed on a high shelf. But Naruto’s bonsai, the plant he probably begged Tadashi to make for him, was being watered by tears and a raucous drinking song and Sakura couldn’t help it when she ran around her mother and grabbed the vase that held Rin’s flowers and tossed it in the air, kicking the damn thing, shattering it on her sandaled foot, the porcelain cutting into her skin. She couldn’t help but dart just out of her mother’s reach and nab Sasuke’s gift and throw it through the window of the kitchen, breaking the glass as she felt rageragerage. Then Kakashi’s sake, she flipped onto the counter and grabbed it as he mother made a lunge, she jumped back and pulled the cork, took a swing of the horrid alcohol and threw it on the ground. Her body was filled with nothing but rageragerage and she ran up the stairs, her mother an out-of-shape chunin, while she was a fresh genin being stamina trained next to a damn Uchiha and Uzumaki.

Slamming her door shut she began to shuck her mission clothes into a knapsack, her scrolls, her weapons and grabbed her spare set of shoes and a singular blanket just as her mother entered the room.

“I can’t live with someone who wants a boy to die because of something he can’t control.”

“Sakura--”

She jumped through the window and raced across the fence line before jumping to the roofs, her tears and the welling panic in her chest catching her as she made a beeline for the center of town, before she began to run up and tree and crashed through an open curtained window and tucked into a roll, slamming right into a couch and there was a knife at her throat and red falling around her face and Sakura stared up at Karin.

“I need a place to stay.”

The Uzumaki stood up, letting Sakura sit up with her pack and her blanket wrapped around her legs. “We don’t have a spare room.”

“You’ve got a couch.”

“Yeah?”

“That’ll do.”

“Your family?”

“Want Naruto to kill himself, or someone to kill him. I can’t live with that. I’m out.”

“Good, you can fight Tadashi over the couch when he comes by, or bunk with me.”

“You snore.”

“You kick.”

There is quiet and Sakura looks down the hallways to Naruto’s room and Karin sighs, “He’s a mess, leave him alone, let him process.”

“Aren’t you angry with me?”

“You left right?” the pinkette nods, “Then you’re on his side, he’ll be grateful, even if he’ll try and get you to go home.” Sakura sighed and hauled herself up from her position and dropped herself on their large far too comfortable couch. Karin seated next to her, quietly, until a laugh began to build up and the redhead began to crack up.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, just we’re all just a bunch of orphan’s aren’t we? Me, Naruto, Sasuke, Tadashi, Sai, our sensei’s. Now you. Bunch of fuckin’ misfits.” Karin leaned back, “You were the outlier, but now you’re just a damn runaway. We should name you Uzumaki, pass your pink hair off as a really diluted red.” Karin snorted and laid back, seemingly uncaring, and Sakura followed suit, taking in the warm comfort of the apartment. Ink splatters on the floor, weapons on the walls, jackets and throw blankets, small plants dotting a little shelf, some books and scrolls, notes tacked to the walls with shuriken reminding each other of meetings, training, to get groceries, to pick up their socks, that someone ironed their jacket, Tadashi was here scribbled on one note, a photo of Sasuke sleeping on the couch, an ink drawing on the doorway obviously done by Sai. There was a life here, a silly, busy one, but a life. Sakura settled on the couch, comfortable, warm, safe.

And if Naruto wandered out of his room, rubbing at tear-swollen eyes, saw Sakura then went back to his room to sew a little Uzumaki patch on a red wristband leaving it nestled on Sakura’s knapsack. Then no-one said anything when Sakura wore it to training and neither said anything about Sakura taking residence on their couch (except Kakashi).

Things would be alright, Sakura was sure of that.


End file.
